AJ Bell PLC

Earnings Release • Apr 26, 2019

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RNS Number : 1496X

AJ Bell PLC

26 April 2019

26 April 2019

AJ Bell plc

Q2 trading update

AJ Bell plc ("AJ Bell" or the "Company"), one of the UK's largest investment platforms, today issues a trading update in respect of the three months ended 31 March 2019.

Performance overview

Total customer numbers increased 5% in the quarter to 214,853, with total assets under administration ("AUA") up 8% to £47.7 billion. The growth during the period was driven primarily by the platform business:

●	Platform customer numbers increased by 10,424 to a record high of 200,922, up 5% during the quarter
●	Platform AUA increased 9% to a new high of £40.6 billion
●	Platform AUA was boosted by a combination of underlying net inflows of £0.8 billion, defined benefit ("DB") pension transfers of £0.2 billion and favourable market movements of £2.3 billion
●	In line with industry trends and the expectations set out in the Company's Q1 trading update in January 2019, DB pension transfers to the advised platform continued to decline but still contributed to inflows during the quarter

Andy Bell, Chief Executive Officer at AJ Bell, commented:

"Trading in the second quarter of our financial year remained robust despite continued weak investor sentiment.  We continued to attract new customers and assets to our platform, with both measures hitting new highs during the period.  This positions us well for an improvement in investor sentiment. 

"We are due to announce our interim results on 23 May and we expect our financial performance to be slightly ahead of current market expectations."

Three months ended 31 March 2019	Advised Platform £billion	D2C Platform £billion	Total Platform £billion	Non-platform £billion	Total £billion
Opening AUA	28.6	8.7	37.3	6.9	44.2
Underlying inflows(1)	0.8	0.5	1.3	0.1	1.4
Outflows(2)	(0.4)	(0.1)	(0.5)	(0.1)	(0.6)
Underlying net inflows	0.4	0.4	0.8	-	0.8
DB inflows(3)	0.2	-	0.2	-	0.2
Total net inflows	0.6	0.4	1.0	-	1.0
Market and other movements(4)	1.7	0.6	2.3	0.2	2.5
Closing AUA	30.9	9.7	40.6	7.1	47.7
Customers	93,496	107,426	200,922	13,931	214,853
Three months ended 31 March 2018	Advised Platform £billion	D2C Platform £billion	Total Platform £billion	Non-platform £billion	Total £billion
Opening AUA	26.1	7.5	33.6	8.4	42.0
Underlying inflows(1)	0.9	0.5	1.4	0.1	1.5
Outflows(2)	(0.4)	(0.1)	(0.5)	(0.1)	(0.6)
Underlying net inflows	0.5	0.4	0.9	-	0.9
DB inflows(3)	0.5	-	0.5	-	0.5
Total net inflows	1.0	0.4	1.4	-	1.4
Market and other movements(4)	(0.8)	(0.4)	(1.2)	(0.4)	(1.6)
Closing AUA	26.3	7.5	33.8	8.0	41.8
Customers	82,466	83,173	165,639	17,843	183,482

(1) Includes transfers-in, subscriptions, contributions and tax relief, excluding inflows from DB pension transfers

(2) Includes transfers-out, cash withdrawals, benefits and tax payments

(3) Inflows from DB pension transfers

(4) Includes charges, taxes deducted, investment returns and revaluations

Contacts:

AJ Bell

●	Shaun Yates, Head of Investor Relations	+44 (0) 7522 235 898
●	Charlie Musson, Head of PR	+44 (0) 7834 499 554

Instinctif Partners

Public relations adviser to AJ Bell

●	Ross Gillam	+44 (0) 207 457 2020
●	Kaj Sahota	+44 (0) 7341 731 189
●	Katie Bairsto	+44 (0) 7946 424 651

Historical AUA and customer numbers by quarter

Advised Platform AUA (£billion)	Qtr to 31 March 2018	Qtr to 30 June 2018	Qtr to 30 September 2018	Qtr to 31 December 2018	Qtr to 31 March 2019
Opening AUA	26.1	26.3	28.4	29.9	28.6
Underlying inflows(1)	0.9	0.9	0.8	0.8	0.8
Outflows(2)	(0.4)	(0.3)	(0.4)	(0.4)	(0.4)
Underlying net inflows	0.5	0.6	0.4	0.4	0.4
DB inflows(3)	0.5	0.4	0.3	0.3	0.2
Bulk migration inflows	-	-	0.5(6)	-	-
Total net inflows	1.0	1.0	1.2	0.7	0.6
Market and other movements(5)	(0.8)	1.1	0.3	(2.0)	1.7
Closing AUA	26.3	28.4	29.9	28.6	30.9
Customers	82,466	85,131	88,658	90,865	93,496

D2C Platform AUA (£billion)	Qtr to 31 March 2018	Qtr to 30 June 2018	Qtr to 30 September 2018	Qtr to 31 December 2018	Qtr to 31 March 2019
Opening AUA	7.5	7.5	8.3	8.7	8.7
Underlying inflows(1)	0.5	0.7	0.4	0.4	0.5
Outflows(2)	(0.1)	(0.2)	(0.1)	(0.2)	(0.1)
Underlying net inflows	0.4	0.5	0.3	0.2	0.4
Bulk migration inflows	-	-	-	0.2(4)	-
Total net inflows	0.4	0.5	0.3	0.4	0.4
Market and other movements(5)	(0.4)	0.3	0.1	(0.4)	0.6
Closing AUA	7.5	8.3	8.7	8.7	9.7
Customers	83,173	89,660	94,555	99,633	107,426

Non-platform AUA (£billion)	Qtr to 31 March 2018	Qtr to 30 June 2018	Qtr to 30 September 2018	Qtr to 31 December 2018	Qtr to 31 March 2019
Opening AUA	8.4	8.0	8.0	7.5	6.9
Inflows(1)	0.1	-	-	-	0.1
Outflows(2)	(0.1)	(0.2)	(0.1)	(0.3)	(0.1)
Underlying net outflows	-	(0.2)	(0.1)	(0.3)	-
Bulk migration outflows	-	-	(0.5)(6)	-	-
Total net outflows	-	(0.2)	(0.6)	(0.3)	-
Market and other movements(5)	(0.4)	0.2	0.1	(0.3)	0.2
Closing AUA	8.0	8.0	7.5	6.9	7.1
Customers	17,843	17,083	14,699	13,985	13,931
Total closing AUA	41.8	44.7	46.1	44.2	47.7

(1) Includes transfers-in, subscriptions, contributions and tax relief, excluding inflows from DB pension transfers and bulk migrations

(2) Includes transfers-out, cash withdrawals, benefits and tax payments

(3) Inflows from DB pension transfers

(4) AJ Bell plc shares held by employees and former employees of the Company, which were migrated onto the D2C Platform ahead of IPO

(5) Includes charges, taxes deducted, investment returns and revaluations

(6) Non-recurring inflows/(outflows) from bulk customer migrations

About AJ Bell:

Established in 1995, AJ Bell is one of the largest investment platforms in the UK.

We operate in both the advised and direct-to-consumer segments of the platform market and our flagship platform propositions are AJ Bell Investcentre (adviser) and AJ Bell Youinvest (direct-to-consumer).

We offer SIPPs, ISAs and General Investment / Dealing Accounts. We aim to make it easy for our customers to invest by providing them with additional support in the form of various investment solutions and information. We offer a broad investment range including shares and other instruments traded on the major stock exchanges around the world, as well as all mainstream collective investments available in the UK and our own range of AJ Bell funds.

AJ Bell is headquartered in Manchester, UK.

Forward-looking statements

This announcement contains forward-looking statements that involve substantial risks and uncertainties, and actual results and developments may differ materially from those expressed or implied by these statements. These forward-looking statements are statements regarding AJ Bell's intentions, beliefs or current expectations concerning, among other things, its results of operations, financial condition, prospects, growth, strategies and the industry in which it operates. By their nature, forward-looking statements involve risks and uncertainties because they relate to events and depend on circumstances that may or may not occur in the future. These forward-looking statements speak only as of the date of this announcement and AJ Bell does not undertake any obligation to publicly release any revisions to these forward-looking statements to reflect events or circumstances after the date of this announcement.

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